Climate Change: A Reading List

It’s been clear for a long time now that when it comes to climate change, we are pretty much screwed. After the 2016 presidential election … well, stronger language is required. We are well and truly fucked. The new administration … does not care. Is the situation hopeless, though? No. The planet will change, our lives and our descendants’ lives will change, but there is much to do to minimize the damage and adapt to the new reality. We can start by educating ourselves. Below is a list of books that take on the issue of climate change in various ways: some books are about how we got here and others are about what to expect next and what we can do about it. This list is my starting place — please add your recommendations in the comments!

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben. Check out all of McKibben’s many books on the environment and climate change. Eaarth describes what climate change will do to us and the ways we will need to radically change our lives to adapt.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert. Read all of Kolbert’s writing on the climate. This book describes mass extinctions from the past and shows how the on-going sixth extinction is caused by humans.